The present invention relates to an underwater battery powered lighted fishing lure and a method therefor.
For many years fishermen throughout the world have practiced the art of using light for squid and bait fishing. It is well founded that many species of fish will be attracted to artificial light placed in or directed toward the water at night. In the mid 1970""s when Cuban fisherman deployed lights in the form of smudgepots to keep track of their equipment, they discovered that the catch of swordfish increased in the lit region about the lights. It was not long after this discovery that the longline fishing industry became the largest user of underwater lights for fishing.
Dating to the 19th century, xe2x80x9clongliningxe2x80x9d has been used primarily by fishermen searching for tuna and swordfish. The longline consists of a main line to which many leader lines are attached. The main is supported by buoys and can stretch for over 100 miles. Since swordfish are primarily night feeders, the leader lines usually include some type of light, a bait such as squid and a hook. The typical longliner may use as many as 1200 lights per set or main line. Once the use of lights for catching swordfish caught on all types of different lights were deployed. A good example of the first type of lure used was to simply drop a battery light inside a sealed glass jar. Later the favored art evolved into the use of a plastic incandescent light manufactured in Japan. It consisted of a clear two piece acrylic design containing a single 1.5 volt AA battery with a flashlight bulb mounted inside the top. Known as the Japanese light, when the top was screwed into the base the battery made contact activating the light thus becoming the on/off switch. A single O-ring seal was used between the two halves to form a watertight seal when the light was activated. While this type of light was popular, it encountered several problems while in service. One of the first problems was the cost of replacement batteries. Due to the electric current draw of the incandescent bulb, battery life would only prove to be adequate for one night""s use. Another problem was that while the O-ring seal was effective once the light was activated, as soon as it was turned off pressure against the ring was released thereby allowing water and moisture to enter the light. The constant maintenance, replacement of batteries, and the ongoing need to ensure good electrical contacts made for an unreliable and labor-intensive product. These problems, along with the competition created by the expiration of patents for chemical lights, slowly eliminated the use of battery lights.
As fishermen experimented with other light sources, it was discovered that chemical lights proved effective when placed just above the bait. Not long afterwards these lights quickly became the lights of choice among the sword fishing industry.
The most popular producer of chemical light during this time was American Cyanamid. In the 1970""s they developed and marketing chemical lights for use mainly by the military. Patents include U.S. Pat. No. 3,576,987 by Heinz Voight and Robert Meyers, xe2x80x9cChemical Lighting Device to Store, Initiate and Display Chemical Light,xe2x80x9d U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,051 by Jacques Ledyjensky, Chemiluminescent Lighting Element, U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,405 by Robert Giglia, xe2x80x9cLightstick with Line Attachment.xe2x80x9d This collection of chemical light stick patents is only a small representation of a much larger group.
The art of chemiluminesence is well documented, being devised from the mixing of a combination of chemicals to produces light. In a lightstick, this mixing is accomplished by bending the light which ruptures an internal ampule and allows the activator and oxalate chemicals to mix. The success of light sticks for swordfishing was due to the simplicity of the product itself. All a fisherman had to do to activate the light was bend the stick, attach it to the fishing line, and send it overboard. Since the lights were only good for one night of fishing they were simply collected and disposed of at the end of the night. Despite the expense, the timesaving and reliability offered by chemical lights offset the initial high cost. As the product cycle continued and the protection of patents expired, competition increased thereby allowing prices to drop to their current levels in the later part of the 1990s. Although these prices have helped to discourage development of alternate types of fishing lights, recent environmental concerns and the advance of alternative efficient light sources are putting pressure on the industry to come up with better solutions. The discarding of spent light sticks is one of these concerns. Chemical lights give off carbon dioxide gas during their activation and as such the sticks float indefinitely until they are either collected or washed on shore. It is not uncommon to find beaches littered with light sticks that have been illegally dumped at sea or have accidentally detached from their fishing lines.
In addition, there is a new environmental concern with regards to sea birds such as the Pacific Albatross. According to Katherine L. Cousins in a recent paper presented to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council titled MARINE POLLUTION: A SERIOUS PROBLEM FOR BREEDING ALBATROSS, xe2x80x9cConcern has been expressed regarding the numerous light sticks and cigarette lighters found in the remains of albatross chicks on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Adult seabirds ingest plastic items while foraging for food at-sea and then inadvertently feed the plastic to their young. Albatrosses tend to follow ships, and as opportunistic foragers, they quickly learn that the ships can be a source of food. Plastic garbage lost intentionally or unintentionally from ships could easily be the source of their plastic in the marine enviromment.xe2x80x9d Since the short-tailed albatross is listed on the endangered species list, there is an increasing threat that the areas these birds occupy might be closed completely to commercial fishing unless this problem is eliminated.
Recent attempts to offer an alternative to chemical light sticks in the commercial fishing market have not been successful. U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,346 by Gerald Boddie, xe2x80x9cSubmersible Fishing Lightxe2x80x9d, now expired, discloses an incandescent fishing light combined with a ballast to make the light sink. This patent disclosure uses an external battery source such as a 12 volt car battery secured by alligator clips. Similar to the Japanese light, the current requirements of this type of light make it too expensive to operate in comparison to chemical light. Also the use of an external power source would make this light unpractical for longlining operations. U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,437 to Joseph Roberts, xe2x80x9cElectrical Light for Underwater Usexe2x80x9d now expired, discloses an LED light that is activated by flexing the lead of the LED to engage the battery and activate the light. It includes a threaded cap with an O-ring to seal water out and allow for the replacement of batteries. It also includes a snap ring for attachment to a fishing line. A lighted fishing lure designed in accordance with this patent would need to be quite large. Since it only illuminates light directed forward of the battery compartment, it would either require a long light guide as a means of distributing light or it would offer a very narrow viewing angle from the LED itself. U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,003 to Yung-Haung Chen, xe2x80x9cLight Device for an Artificial Lurexe2x80x9d, now expired, discloses a lure having a transparent tubular chamber with an electrical light-emitting device. For commercial uses, this type of arrangement would be susceptible to breakage and would be difficult to handle. It also discloses the use of button type batteries that have low miliamp hour life and can be difficult to find in many parts of the world. All of these devices seem to have been created for the occasional, light duty use by recreational fishermen. They do not meet the needs of the commercial longline fisherman and the intense pressures reached when fishing to depths of over 1,000 feet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,003 to Chen discloses a light device for artificial fishing lure. The Chen ""003 patent disclosure describes an LED mounted in a transparent tube having a reflector mounted opposite the LED in the tube. The battery is located behind the LED and hence does not reflect light emitted by the LED. Notches are formed in the transparent tube which reflect LED light traveling through the tube. A reflector placed opposite the LED in the tube reflects light from the LED.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,437 to Roberts discloses an electrical light for underwater use. The Roberts ""437 patent disclosure includes an LED with a battery located behind the LED and a transparent cap. Light is emitted from the front end of the cap in a forward directed beam. U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,107 to Ratcliffe discloses an illuminating fishing lure having a non-transparent and light blocking rear housing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,941 to Casey discloses a lighted fishing bobber which emits light only through a light pipe at the top end of the bobber. U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,553 to Gordon discloses a lighted fishing lure having a generally cylindrical shape which emits light beams perpendicular to the axial center line of the lure.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an underwater battery powered lighted fishing lure and a method therefor.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a lighted fishing lure that emits light, 360 degrees and in all three directions, along its x axis, y axis and z axis.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a lighted fishing lure which reflects, refracts and defuses light in order to emit light in all directions.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a lighted fishing lure which is sized such that birds cannot swallow the lighted lure.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a lighted fishing lure which has a negative buoyancy in sea water.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a lighted fishing lure which automatically turns ON when the lure is exposed to a certain pressure underwater.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a tri-modal control for a lighted fishing lure that turns the lure ON in one control mode, turns the lure OFF in a second control mode and establishes a pressure sensitive switch in a third control mode.
The underwater battery powered lighted fishing lure includes, in one embodiment, a transparent housing having at least one battery cavity and at least one light emitting device cavity, a battery disposed in the battery cavity and a light emitting device disposed in the device cavity. Preferably, the light emitting device is an LED (light emitting diode). The battery in this embodiment has a substantially light reflective surface. An electrical circuit couples the battery and the LED. The transparent housing has light refraction surfaces therein and one or more light modifiers from the group of light diffusing optical elements dispersed in said housing and light reflecting material dispersed in the housing. As a result, the lighted fishing lure emits light in all three dimensions (x, y and z) due to light refraction, light reflection from at least the battery and light dispersion caused by one of the diffusing elements or reflecting material dispersed throughout the housing. Other embodiments include a battery with or without light reflective surface, light diffusing elements in the form of beads, rods or fibers (preferably glass) and light reflecting material such as glitter. The light diffracting elements may be bubbles or voids in the housing. The glass elements or voids have a different index of refraction as compared with the index of refraction of the transparent housing. Preferably, the lighted fishing lure includes two LEDs and two batteries which are all disposed at offset positions with respect to an axial centerline through the generally frusto-conical shape or generally cylindrical shape of the housing. The lighted fishing lure may further include a pressure sensitive switch. In a working embodiment, the lure has a three way or tri-modal control which enables the LED to be turned ON in one mode, OFF in a second mode and in a third mode, placed in a pressure sensitive switch condition such that the LED is turned ON when the ambient pressure exceeds a predetermined pressure underwater. The ambient pressure is sensed by a pressure sensitive control surface. The method of illuminating an underwater battery powered lighted fishing lure includes the steps of refracting light traveling from the LED through the housing, reflecting light from the LED off the battery, providing at least one of a light diffusing element and/or glitter deployed within the housing and either diffusing LED light or reflecting LED light from the diffusing element and/or glitter thereby causing the fishing lure to emit light in all directions by refraction, reflection and diffusion or further reflection from the light diffusion element (glass or voids) and/or glitter, respectively.